California’s Dropout Rate – Totally Unacceptable

The San Francisco Gate reported that 24% of California’s high schoolers are likely to dropout of school. “Using a new student-tracking system, state educators found that 127,292 high school students in ninth through 12th grade quit school during the 2006-2007 school year. The new dropout rate is far higher than the 13% educators had earlier estimated using less-sophisticated counting methods.”

53,600 students who said they were transferring to a new school last year never actually showed up. Earlier estimates were that 10,000 African-American students would quit. But the expected number is nearly twice as high: 19,400 For Latinos, the estimate was 37,716. The actual number is now estimated at 69,035.

California’s dropouts cost the state $50 billion per year because of the need to pay for the crimes they commit and the incarceration rate, additional health costs, lost taxes and productivity, welfare costs, etc., etc.

Some communities have higher than the 24% statewide figures: Oakland Unified (37%), West Contra Costa Unified (40%), and Vallejo City Unified (42%).

Imagine if 1 out of 4 airplanes crashed. What kind of uproar would be heard by people and yet as a nation we accept these figures with little acknowledgement?